


The Shattered Frame

by rowanix



Series: The Living Ghost [2]
Category: Lockwood & Co. - Jonathan Stroud
Genre: F/F, F/M, FFFHGJHF, Fluff and Angst, Humor, and locklyle, and skull and george bants, but also will have skull and luce being bros, but here goes, holly is the mum friend, i am so bad at doing work i actually need to do, i try to be funny anyway, skull backstory, this basically starts of fluffy and turns angsty so i'm sorry, y'all asked for it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-01-22 03:25:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12472404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowanix/pseuds/rowanix
Summary: A cluster of hauntings in a decrepit manor and the dripping spectre of a woman dressed all in black hits a little too close to home for Lockwood & Co's newest member.





	1. A Shopping Trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This won’t make sense unless you’ve read my previous fic ‘The Living Ghost’ so go read that first! ^_^

Skull looked just about ready to murder Holly. He often threatened to, of course, and I rarely took those threats seriously, but the look on his face as she piled another dozen shirts into the shopping trolley made me make a mental note to keep him well away from the kitchenware section.

  
“Nobody needs this many shirts,” he said, coldly. “The most I ever had was two.”

  
“I’m sure you also used a hole in the ground for a toilet,” Holly replied, unconcerned. “Times change, Skully. And we don’t know your clothing size; you need a few to try on.”

  
I should probably mention that, after an incident involving George, Skull, and an electric whisk, we had given up calling him ‘Jim’ and had instead settled for ‘Skully’, which could at least pass as an ordinary nickname.

  
Skully glared down at the pile of clothes in the trolley. “This isn’t ‘a few’, this is the whole damn store!”

  
It had taken us a week to convince Skully to come clothes shopping with us – he seemed to dislike the chaos of modern London, with its masses of people and vehicles. Lockwood had had to promise to buy him all the chocolate milk he wanted in order to persuade him; I think he was rather desperate to have Skully stop stealing his clothes, which was understandable, as the ex-ghost currently owned no underwear.

  
Kipps was off visiting his grandma and George had stayed home, partially because he had an aversion to clothes that weren’t ragged and discoloured, and partially because, whenever he and Skully were in the same place, more likely than not a slap fight would occur, and Holly insisted that wasn’t appropriate in public. So today it was just me, Skully, Lockwood, Holly, and Rani, who had tagged along to spend some time with her girlfriend. Holly had since explained to her all about how the Orpheus Society had brought the skull back to life.

  
“Give the kid a break, Hol,” she chastised. “He’s probably never had to go shopping before.”

 

“My feet huuurt,” Skully whined.

  
“You can sit down when we get to the shoes,” Holly said.

  
“And how long will that be?” I said, a little apprehensively; my feet were starting to hurt too, as Holly had already made us spend half an hour looking at socks.

  
“Well, we still need trousers, jumpers, jackets, coats…” Holly said as she held up a blazer to Skully to inspect. “And maybe a suit.”

  
“What do I need a suit for?!” Skully exclaimed.

  
“For special occasions,” Holly said, patiently. “Parties and birthdays…”

  
“When _is_ your birthday, Skully?” Lockwood said, curiously as he rifled idly through the trouser rack.

  
“Well, on a cold Halloween night in 1859…” Skully started.

  
“As if you were born on Halloween,” I said.

  
“… my mother was in labour and I popped out just after midnight on the first of November,” Skully finished.

  
“Bummer,” I said.

  
Skully nodded solemnly. “It was the greatest disappointment of my life.”

  
“Ooh, your birthday’s not too far away then,” said Rani. “We’ll have to celebrate!”

  
“I’ll bake a cake,” said Holly.

  
Skully looked at her with slightly less murder in his eyes. “I have no objection to that. As long as there’s no fruit in it. And George doesn’t get any.”

  
Holly smiled. “I’ll make it chocolate, and a separate one for George.”

  
“I almost forgive you for this hell trip,” said Skully.

  
“Speaking of special occasions,” said Rani, slipping an arm around Holly’s waist, “our six-months is coming up, babe. I’m gonna go see what wine they have.”

  
“Aw, you know the way to a girl’s heart,” said Holly, grinning at her.

  
“I’m surrounded by couples,” Skully huffed, sticking his tongue out in disgust. “Get me a beer while you’re at it.”

  
Holly raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you above the drinking age?”

  
“There’s a limit now?” Skully scoffed. “Back in my day, we were drinking beer straight out of the womb.”

  
“Wasn’t that because it was safer than water?” I said.

  
“How can beer be safer than water?” said Lockwood.

  
“Well, for some reason, shoving everyone’s crap in the Thames and getting drinking water from the same place made people sick,” said Skully, shrugging.

  
“Weird,” I said.

  
“I know, right!”

  
Holly crossed her arms stubbornly. “Well, water is safe now and alcohol has an age limit. How old are you?”

  
Skully looked thoughtful for a minute. “One hundred and fifty-seven,” he said at last.

  
“How old were you when you died?” Holly clarified.

  
“Oh. Eighteen.”

  
“Seems convenient,” said Lockwood, suspiciously.

  
“Hang on,” I said. “Well, Bickerstaff died in, what was it? 1877? And Skully must have died soon after, sooo…” I did the maths in my head using the birth year Skully had given us. “Yeah, he’s eighteen.”

  
“Alright, I’ll get you a six-pack or something,” said Rani, making her way towards the escalator that lead to the food section. “Call it compensation for putting up with Hol.”

  
“I’m not that annoying!” Holly called after her.

  
“Never said you were, babe!”

  
“You know, I quite like that one,” said Skully once Rani had gone. “I’ll let her live for a while.”

  
“I’m gonna go ahead and ignore that last part,” I said.

  
Lockwood tugged a pair of trousers off the rail and held them up in front of him. “What do you think of these? For my blue blazer.”

  
“They look great, Lockwood!” said Holly.

  
“They’d look even better on Lucy’s floor,” Skully added.

  
I stared at him, feeling my face go red. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lockwood blushing too, and Holly covering up a smile with her hand. “Did you just… hit on Lockwood for me?”

  
“Well someone’s gotta give you two emotionally-stunted turnips a hand!”

  
“We’re already dating, you buffoon,” I said. “There’s not much point.”

  
“Yeah, but pick-up lines are the best!” Skully insisted. “Behold.” He sidled up to the closest stranger around our age who was shopping nearby. “Hey, did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Coz it hurt when I crawled up from hell.” He snapped double finger guns at the boy and winked for good measure. “Aw, no. Come back!” he called as the boy quickly made his way to the other side of the store.

  
I stifled a laugh behind my hand as Holly and Lockwood snickered behind me. “Maybe you shouldn’t have included that bit about hell.”

  
“Just adding a bit of factual information, you know,” said Skully.

  
In fairness, he didn’t seem too fussed that his flirting attempt had failed. To be honest, I had no idea where he stood on the whole relationship/sexuality thing. Maybe he just didn’t care about that stuff.

  
“Alright, that’s enough messing around,” said Holly. “Let’s moved onto trousers.”

  
Skully groaned and dropped his head onto my shoulder from behind, basically forcing me to support his weight. “Kill me now. Just not with a garrotte. That hurts.”

  
I had often wondered how his skull had come to be separated from his body, but now I got the feeling that ignorance really was bliss. “Spare me the details,” I said, patting his head in mock pity.

  
Despite Skully’s whining, there a few things in life as enjoyable as just spending a day out in a shopping centre with your friends. Making them try on the most ridiculous accessories you can find; smearing sample lipstick on your boyfriend’s face; playing with the toy’s in the children’s section, wishing you got to play with them as a kid; screaming and laughing as you cling to the sides of the rickety trolley you ‘borrowed’ while your best friend hurtles you around the car park, (not that that’s what we were doing while the others were busy paying, of course).

  
There’s something about just being in the presence of the people who care about you, something that makes the rest of the world melt away. You can lose yourself, and forget how you woke up last night in a cold sweat because you dreamed of a mass of black and red flames overwhelming your friends. You can forget all the horrors and misery the world holds. Constraints of life and the passage of time doesn’t seem to matter.

  
You can let go of all your worries and stress, just for a moment.

  
Even if you know it won’t last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, that's a parks and rec reference, no I'm not sorry.  
> Enjoy the fluff while it lasts, my friends.


	2. A New Case

“We’ve got a case!” George declared as we walked through the door, laden with shopping bags that he made no move to help us with. “A big one! Reckon it’ll take all of us to sort this out, even you, Skullykins.”

  
Skully glowered at the nickname. “Sleep with one eye open, b–”

  
“What’s the case?” Lockwood interrupted as he made his way upstairs to dump the bags in Jessica’s-turned-Skully’s room; so much for using it as a guest bedroom. “We’ve still got a lot of other cases lined up, remember?”

  
“Oh, but this is gonna be good, trust me,” George insisted, following us up the stairs. “Not to mention it’ll get us some serious spending money. More than all our recent cases combined. I’ll be able to get that new scientific equipment I wanted.”

  
“Keep it well away from me or what your research burn,” said Skully.

  
“Why will it make us so much money?” said Holly, before George and Skully could get into an argument. With our recent fame, cases had been coming in by the bucket load, and our purses were much heavier as a result.

  
“Because, this guy is loaded,” George declared. “He rang up this morning. There’s this huge manor that he recently inherited. It’s been left abandoned because it’s so teeming with visitors, but he found out if he does it up it’ll be worth a fortune, and we’d be in for a cut of that if we helped clear it!”

  
“Interesting…” said Lockwood.

  
Holly held the bedroom door open for us to carry Skully’s new belongings in; her arm was still healing from our run-in with the Orpheus Society, so she wasn’t carrying as many bags as us.

  
Where the other bedrooms in Portland Row were cluttered with our personal belongings and decorated according to our personality’s, Skully’s was bare. It made me want to buy him a bunch of useless trinkets for his birthday, maybe draw him something as well, just so he had something of his own to display.

  
We dumped the bags on the bed, which looked like it hadn’t been slept in last night. Incidentally, it hadn’t; it had become a common occurrence that Skully slept on the floor in my attic bedroom by the window. He said it was because he missed annoying me at night, but I knew his newly living brain gave him nightmares, not that either of us said anything about it. I didn’t mind so much; my mind wasn’t so nice to me at night either, not after the things I’d seen. Our impromptu sleepovers gave me some comfort.

  
On the nights he wasn’t there, and I’d woken up from a bad dream, I’d creep downstairs to the library. Sometimes I’d draw in my sketchbook until my thoughts quieted, other times I’d find Lockwood there too, and we’d curl up on the sofa together and just talk. Occasionally about what we’d been through and what we’d seen on the Other Side, but mostly just random things – families, the cat that kept visiting our garden, the time Lockwood actually caught George in the act of stealing his Choco Leibniz… It was nice and helped clear our heads enough to fall asleep, propped up against one another until we woke up the next morning to a camera flash and I had to chase George around the house.

  
We left everything on the bed to sort out later, though Rani had to drag Holly away from trying to sort it all out, and gathered in the kitchen. At some point, while we were out, Kipps had returned and let himself in, something he did quite often but no one mentioned. I’d almost forgotten he didn’t actually live with us.

  
“So, what’s the deal with this mansion?” I said.

  
“According to the information Mr Taylor gave me,” George started, “there seems to be a cluster of hauntings caused by one powerful Visitor. And, boy, it seems like a biggy. Pretty much anyone who’s spent the night there over the past fifty years was found drowned by morning. The place is full of their spirits.”

  
“Drowned?” said Kipps, alarmed. “How?”

  
“Well there’s a swimming pool outside,” George explained, “but the weird thing is it’s been empty for decades, yet a fair few people were still found at the bottom of it with their lungs full of water.” He removed his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt. “Aside from that, bodies were found near sinks, bathtubs… basically anywhere with pipes.”

  
I grimaced; I wasn’t a huge fan of water after my mother had taught me and my sisters to swim by throwing us in the deep end of the local pool.

  
Lockwood hummed thoughtfully. “Well, obviously we’ll need to do some research before we…”

  
“Actually,” George interrupted, “I already got that covered, seen as you lot took so long at the shops.”

Skully sent Holly a dirty look which she pretended not to notice.

  
George quickly darted to his desk in the office downstairs and retrieved his research, which he then spread out on the kitchen table. Lockwood took a seat and examined the papers while I stood behind him, peering over his shoulder and absentmindedly rubbing my hand up and down his arm; this case made me a little nervous.

  
George wasted no time excitedly delving into the history of the manor. “Ok, so back in the late 1800s, Redwood Manor was owned by a Lord Arthur Moore, who lived there with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two daughters. Now, here’s the thing about Elizabeth –” He pushed up his glasses which flashed in the light as he grinned sadistically – “She used to be a maid working for the Moores family before she fell in love with young Arthur, here. Arty got into a lot of trouble with his family after that, and they carted him off to live away from the rest of the family, so he wouldn’t be such a disgrace. None of that stopped him from marrying Elizabeth, though…”

  
“How romantic,” said Holly, smiling softly.

  
“Disgusting,” said Skully. I elbowed him.

  
“Anyway,” George continued, “Elizabeth here didn’t have such a great childhood. Had a lot of siblings, but most of them didn’t make it past the age of nine, and both her parents died when she was fourteen. Fortunately, she was already working as a maid by then. But then her brother vanished…”

  
“What happened to him?” said Rani.

  
“No one knows,” said George. “Most likely starved in the streets or something. Elizabeth tried to look for him, but the police didn’t want to waste time looking for some random orphan.”

  
“That must have been awful for her,” said Holly.

  
“What was the brother's name?” said Skully. It surprised me that he was actually paying attention; he usually zoned out.

  
George shrugged. “Dunno. Wasn’t a lot about her life before she got married. This stuff’s all I found out. Anyway,” he continued, “it gets worse. See, she settles down with Arthur, has a couple of kids, everything seems to be looking up, right? Except in 1890, her husband and daughters were involved in a fatal accident when the train they were in derailed, and Elizabeth, basically driven mad with grief, went and drowned herself in the pool.”

  
“Oh, god…” said Kipps.

  
“So, you think Elizabeth Moore is our main ghost?” said Lockwood.

  
George nodded. “Track down her source and we stop the other Visitors too. Then hello new chemistry set.”

  
“Sounds riveting,” I said. “Where exactly is this manor?”

  
“About that…” said George. “It’s kind of way up north. Near the seaside.”

  
Lockwood gave him a look.

  
“Hey!” said George, defensively. “Just goes to show how big this company’s gotten, right? They’ve heard of us even way up there!”

  
“And how exactly do you plan to get us up there?” Lockwood said. “What with all our equipment.”

  
“You could borrow my car,” said Rani. “Holly’s insured on it. And it’s a family carrier, coz I have to pick up all my siblings from school sometimes, so you should all fit.”

  
“Are you sure that’s alright?” said Holly.

  
“Yeah, yeah,” Rani replied. “I can always get a cab if need be. Just make sure you don’t get yourself killed before our anniversary; that wine was expensive.”

  
Holly stuck her tongue out at her.

 

“I don’t know, George,” said Lockwood, unconvinced. “It’s such a long way away for one case.”

  
“Trust me, Lockwood,” said George, “you’ll want in. Mr Taylor’s pretty desperate to have this place cleared; a lot of other agencies have failed. Here, I wrote down how much he’s willing to pay us.” He pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Lockwood.

  
Lockwood stared at the paper. I leaned over his shoulder and gasped. “Did you… did you miss a decimal point or something?”

  
“Nope,” said George, grinning. “I triple checked.”

  
“Well,” said Lockwood, still staring at the paper, “I guess we’ll be having a company road trip to the seaside.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *chanting* ROAD TRIP ROAD TRIP ROAD TRIP!


	3. Roadtrip

There was a brief argument between Kipps and Lockwood over whether the oldest or the tallest got to sit in the front seat. Kipps won out in the end, after pointing out that, if Lockwood sat in the front, he wouldn’t get to sit next to me. He flushed at that but made no further objections. No one pointed out that Skully was, in fact, both the oldest (if you counted his years spent as a ghost) and the same height as Lockwood, though that was easy to forget because he slouched so much. He didn’t seem to care, though, and slid into the back seat with me and Lockwood, leaving the third row for George – his own fault for being the last ready. I got stuck in the middle – a disadvantage of being the shortest out of the three of us. It was either that or sit next to George in the back, and he had a tendency to fall asleep on whoever was sitting next to him and drool, something I’d discovered on many a taxi ride home after a case.

  
Skully kicked the back of Kipps’s seat repeatedly while we waited for Holly to say her goodbyes to Rani, either to be annoying or because he was already feeling restless; he got tetchy in small spaces, something I put down to his many years stuck in a jar.

  
“If I have to put up with this for the whole ride, Lockwood can have the front,” Kipps huffed.

  
“Oh, hold on,” said Lockwood, suddenly. “George, pass my bag from the boot.”

  
George handed over Lockwood’s bag and he proceeded to fish something out of the front pocket and pass it to Skully. “I used to have trouble focusing when I was younger, and my sister bought me a bunch of stuff like this. Now I just practice with my rapier instead, so you can have them if you like.”

  
Skully inspected the object – a line of interlocking pyramids that could be twisted to contort the toy into different shapes - and eyed Lockwood contemplatively for a moment.

“Thanks, A.J,” he said at last.

  
“Call it an early birthday present,” said Lockwood, giving Skully a warm smile. He said nothing about the new nickname; I guess it wasn’t as bad as ‘big A’.

  
Skully seemed content fiddling with the toy for now; he relaxed back into his seat and stopped kicking Kipps’s chair. I shot Lockwood a grateful smile.

  
We watched Holly hug Rani one last time.

  
“Stay safe, okay?” Rani was saying. “Call me when you arrive.”

  
“Come on, Hol!” George called. “We’ve gotta get there before it gets dark.”

  
A little reluctantly, Holly pulled away from Rani’s embrace and climbed into the driver’s seat. Rani waved us off as the car pulled out into the road. I watched her go.

  
“George,” I said, “why did so many agencies fail at clearing this place?”

  
George cleared his throat. “Oh, you know, ran into some trouble, that’s all. Not as competent as we are.”

  
“So, they gave up and left?”

  
“Something like that.”

  
I had a feeling that meant they gave up living, but I said no more about it; I hated the thought of this case enough already.

  
“How long until we get there?” Lockwood asked.

  
“Four, maybe five hours,” Holly replied. “Give or take.”

  
Skully let out a long groan.

  
“Don’t be like that,” said Kipps, “now you get to experience the joy of car games.”

  
“For example,” I said, and punched Skully in the arm.

  
“Owww! What was that for?” Skully whined.

  
“Yellow car,” I said, pointing it out.

  
“You’re just supposed to _say_ yellow car,” said Holly.

  
“That’s not how my sisters and I played it– Ow!”

  
“Yellow car!” Skully announced, grinning. “You know what? I like this game!”

  
“Can we play something a little less violent?” said Holly, hopefully. “Like I Spy?”

  
“I Spy is for losers,” said George, reaching forwards and punching Lockwood’s shoulder. “Yellow car!”

  
“Or the Alphabet game,” Kipps suggested.

  
The car turned a corner, the momentum forcing us the lean sideways. Skully lurched into my side so I wound up squished between him and Lockwood.

  
“Hey!”

  
“Oops!”

  
“That’s also a loser game,” said George. “Let’s play truth or dare.”

  
The car turned another corner. Lockwood grinned at me before shoving me into Skully who collided with the door.

  
“ _Boys_!” Holly warned.

  
“You can’t play truth or dare in a car,” Kipps argued.

  
“You can play the truth bits!”

  
“Then it’s just ‘truth’!”

  
A roundabout came into view. I stuck out both elbows so the boys either side of me wouldn’t be tempted to squish me again.

  
“Fine, we’ll play truth! Skully, how did you die?”

  
“George! Don’t be rude!” Holly scolded as I shot a dirty look towards the back seat.

  
“I was beheaded for several accounts of murder,” Skully replied with an even tone.

  
“They hanged people in those days, they didn’t behead them,” George said, scowling at him. “How’d you really die, Jimothy?”

  
Skully flicked a window cover at him, which unfolded in mid-air and smacked him in the face, knocking his glasses off.

  
“I swear, if you lot don’t behave, I am turning this car around!” Holly threatened.

  
We settled into a game of I Spy after that.

  
Two and a half hours later, we stopped for lunch and a toilet break. We sat on the hood of the car and ate the sandwiches Rani had made for our trip. Holly yawned into her hand.

  
“Why don’t you let me drive for the last stretch, Hol,” Kipps offered.

  
“Oh, no, no, no,” Holly said. “You’re not insured on it. If we get pulled over…”

  
“No one’s going to pull us over,” Kipps insisted. “I have never been pulled over in my life.”

  
Holly surrendered after a little while and let Kipps take the driver’s seat; I think she was exhausted from having to deal with the rest of us for over two hours.

  
The drive went on without problems for a little while; Holly was fast asleep, George was snoring in the back, Skully was dozing against the window…

  
We got pulled over.

  
The policeman tapped on the driver’s side window and, on the edge of my vision, I saw Skully open one eye.

  
Kipps rolled down the window. “Is there a problem, officer?” he said, smiling tightly.

  
“Routine check. We’ve had a few car robberies ‘round here. Can I see your license?”

  
“Yep! One sec!”

  
As Kipps turned towards the glove compartment, he exchanged a frantic look with me that clearly said he did not have his licence on him.

  
To bide time while we tried to think up excuses, he shuffled through the items in the glove compartment. “Should be in here, just one sec. Not like it’s not my car or anything! Ha-ha.”

  
The policeman raised an eyebrow. I mentally face-palmed.

  
“Sir, I’m going to need you to…”

  
Then something happened. The officer paled. He swallowed, thickly, and took a step back. “Um… y-you know what? It’s fine. You all look like nice kids, anyway… and I really should get going. Don’t worry about it! I’ll just…” He seemed all too keen to get back to his car, tripping over his feet before he scrambled into the driver's seat and slammed the door to drive away.

  
“Strange,” said Lockwood as Kipps breathed a sigh of relief.

  
Skully closed his eyes again. I eyed him curiously.

  
“What did you do?”

  
“I don’t know why you’re assuming I did anything,” said Skully, without opening his eyes. “Maybe he just has an aversion to gingers.”

  
“Hey!” Kipps protested.

  
I hummed, unconvinced; the cop’s reaction had looked suspiciously like Creeping Fear, but the sun was still shining, and I definitely hadn’t felt the presence of any Visitors. I wondered how many ghostly powers my friend still possessed.

  
Holly had remained fast asleep for the whole encounter, so Kipps continued driving. I propped my head against Lockwood’s shoulder, watching the cars pass by, imagining stories for each of the passengers. The radio played an old song my dad used to have on records before he died. I didn’t have many good memories of him, but the song still gave me a strange sense of nostalgia.

  
Lockwood’s jumper was soft against my cheek, and it smelled of clean laundry and fresh tea bags and home. I snuggled closer and closed my eyes.

  
I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I remember, Lockwood’s arm was around me, Holly was back in the driver’s seat, and George and Kipps were arguing.

  
“We should’ve gone right back there.”

  
“No, the map clearly says that would have taken us away from the sea. We want to go towards the sea.”

  
“It’ll loop back around!”

  
Next to me, Skully had also been woken up and was agitatedly fidgeting with the toy again.

  
“Lemme see the map,” George insisted.

  
“I’m in the front seat, therefore, I have map privileges,” Kipps retorted.

  
“But if we don’t get there before nightfall, they won’t let us in!”

  
“Maybe I should ask someone for directions,” Holly suggested.

  
“No!” both boys shouted at once before going back to arguing. Holly and I exchanged eye contact in the rear-view mirror. _Boys_.

  
Eventually, Skully seemed to have had enough. He snapped his fingers and the map flew out of Kipps’s hands and into his.

  
“Oi!”

  
“Oh, come on!” said George. “Can you even read?”

  
Skully shot him a deadly look before scrutinizing the map, occasionally glancing out of the window at our surroundings. “Ok, go left here and then right and we’ll be on the…” He squinted at the map. “The promen…”

  
George scoffed.

  
“The promenade,” I supplied, scowling at George.

  
Holly followed his directions and, sure enough, we found ourselves right outside the hotel where we’d be staying for the night, with plenty of time to spare before nightfall.

  
It was certainly a change from the Inns we usually stayed at, though I wasn’t sure I liked it. It just seemed too… clean. Less homely. Holly, Kipps, and Lockwood seemed right at home, though.

  
We were shown to our rooms by a woman with a thick northern accent that only I was able to understand, and split off into twos: Kipps with Holly, George with Lockwood, and me with Skully, mostly because I couldn’t trust him not to murder anyone else.

  
I claimed the bed by the window by dumping my bags on it. Skully immediately began jumping on his bed and scoffed down both our pillow mints.

  
I stared out of the window, which overlooked the beach. The tide was way out, blending into the sky on the horizon. Despite the season, a few children still ran around on the sand with their parents standing nearby. Perhaps it was half term.

  
“Have you ever been to the seaside before?” I asked Skully, who was now rifling through the complimentary toiletries in the en-suite.

  
“Snuck on a train to Brighton with my sister, once,” he replied. “Got kicked off before we got there, though.”

  
“I didn’t know you had a sister,” I said.

  
“I had 5. And 6 brothers.”

  
I whistled. “Your parents must have had a fun time handling you all.”

  
“They didn’t have to deal with us for long.”

  
I frowned at Skully’s reflection in the window. Did his siblings die? Did his parents? I realised Skully had been rather lucky to live to adulthood back in those days; from what I remembered from books and primary school history, many barely lived half as long.

  
I was about to ask him more questions about his family when there was a knock on the door and Lockwood entered. “Fancy a walk before it gets too dark, Luce?”

  
I glanced at Skully; he seemed pretty content sniffing shower gels for now.

  
“I’ll be back later,” I told him.

  
He raised an eyebrow and looked meaningfully between me and Lockwood. “Sure.”

  
I ignored that and grabbed my coat before following Lockwood out. As I was about to close the door, Skully yelled after us.

“Don’t get sand in your knickers!”

  
I slammed the door on him. My face burned. Lockwood cleared his throat. “Right… uh… shall we go?”

  
The wind was bitterly cold, and it whipped against our faces and blasted our hair in all directions. We held hands, shoved in Lockwood’s coat pocket for warmth, and walked, pressed up against each other, along the wall overlooking the beach. The sand was rippled from waves, and vast puddles of seawater were dotted around alongside the crumbling remains of children’s sand castles. Seagulls hollered as they soared overhead, swooping down to inspect discarded food wrappers, squawking as they battled each other for fallen chips.

  
Despite the cold, the fresh ocean air was a nice change from the polluted streets of London, and we walked silently for a while, breathing it in. There was no knowing whether we’d get another chance to stroll along beside the beach, listening to the crash of waves in the distance; tomorrow would be spent inside a haunted house, and whether we’d want to stay by the seaside after that ordeal was a mystery for now.

  
On our other side, shops bustled with the last dregs of customers. In London, the streets would be bare by now; everyone would already be safely locked away indoors, long before darkness fell. But I knew from experience that the north of England wasn’t as teeming with ghosts as the south. Fewer dangerous type twos, anyway. It was one of the reasons my previous team had let their guards down that night at the windmill.

  
I eyed the line of shops and checked the watch on my wrist. Half an hour before they all closed; enough time to do a little shopping and maybe grab some fish and chips to take back to the others.

  
I squeezed Lockwood’s hand and changed our course towards one of the shops. He raised an eyebrow at me; I wasn’t usually one for shopping, but this time I had something in mind.

  
We returned to the hotel room a few shopping bags heavier. Most of them were filled with fish and chips – and a pasta salad for Holly – which I took into mine and Skully’s room while Lockwood went to hide the other bag amongst his luggage. Then everyone joined us as we lounged, split into two groups between the twin beds, and stuffed ourselves with all the salty, vinegary – and pasta-y, in Holly’s case – goodness. We needed the energy, after all. We were in for a big day tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloo  
> On the day I am publishing this it is Skully's birthday (what I decided his birthday was in this fic anyway).  
> In case you were wondering, they are currently all stuffed full of cake and playing monopoly because George says its a crime that skully's never played.  
> Lockwood is already bankrupt.  
> Lucy's on her way there and is about ready to flip the board.  
> George and Kipps have already had 3 fights.  
> Skully keeps stealing money when no ones looking, yet somehow Flo is still winning.  
> Holly is the Voice of Reason (and the banker).  
> Rani's just watching and laughing at them all.  
> And finally, grandpa Barnes is wondering why the hell he's there instead of at home with tea and cake.


	4. Redwood Manor

Mr Taylor turned out to be a timid shadow of a man in his late thirties, with eyes that darted back and forth like prey on the lookout for its predator. According to George, he’d been quite the formidable agent in his youth, but the fading of his Talent had left him jittery, terrified of being killed by the ghosts he could no longer see.

He guided us around the manor with the air of someone who would rather be in a cage with several lions who hadn’t eaten in weeks, because at least then he could see them. His stuttering commentary accompanied us from the vast foyer, through the living room with its musty armchairs and wide fireplace, upstairs through the dusty bedrooms, and downstairs to the basement that used to be the servants’ quarters, but was now used to store old furniture draped in moth-eaten sheets.

He refused to enter any of the bathrooms or the kitchen, informing us that many had been found drowned there, and he stayed on the porch when he took us to the back garden where the swimming pool was situated.

“Th-that’s where they found Lady Moore,” he stammered, gesturing weakly to the empty pool.

I walked up to the edge and peered in. Thick slime and dirt obscured the tiles, and puddles of old rainwater had formed in cracks at the bottom.

“Wouldn’t want to drown in there,” I said, grimacing.

Lockwood patted Mr Taylor on the shoulder. “Well, Ms Moore won’t be bothering you for much longer. How about you head off home before it gets dark and we’ll set up?”

Mr Taylor wasted absolutely no time in leaving us alone in the garden.

“See any death glows yet?” I asked Lockwood.

He hummed. “There’s one in the middle of the pool, quite bright already. I suppose it’ll only get brighter.” He pulled out his spare pair of sunglasses from his coat pocket and handed them to Skully for later.

I’d never been on a case with the living, breathing Skully before. None of us had. He tended to lounge around at home while we went out and risked our lives. I didn’t question it much; I just guessed he’d had enough of death. It was a shame, though; with his connection to the Other Side, Skully’s Talent was the strongest out of all of us. He had Sight as sensitive as Lockwood’s and Listening on par with mine. That, combined with his supernatural powers, meant clearing this manor of Visitors shouldn’t be too much trouble, as long as he actually cooperated.

Kipps put on his goggles. As a group, we scouted out the manor again, this time putting our combined talents to use and checking the temperature as we went along.

We set up our first iron chain in the living room in front of the fireplace, dumping all our spare equipment in it, then we set up smaller chains outside the bathrooms, kitchen, the back porch, and, finally, the basement, which was a few degrees colder than was natural.

The temperature steadily dropped as the sun gradually dipped below the horizon, colder near the water sources; dozens of death glows appeared, forcing Skully and Lockwood to don their sunglasses; shadowy figures began to drift through the hallways, but they seemed harmless for now, and I caught faint gurgling sounds coming from the kitchen sink.

As we were circling the perimeter of the house near the pool, Skully let out a yell.

“LOOK OUT!”

I nearly jumped out of my skin, Holly shrieked, Kipps squealed and clutched my arm, George leapt several feet into the air and his glasses went flying, Lockwood stumbled and fell flat on his face.

“Oh,” said Skully. “Never mind. Just a shadow.”

I slapped his arm.

“Ow!” he yelped. “What was that for?!”

“You know exactly what that was for!”

“Is this what you had to put up with on cases, Luce?” said Kipps, glowering at Skully who grinned evilly back at him.

“You have _no idea_ ,” I replied.

“No more of that,” said Lockwood, pushing himself to his feet and wiping mud off his sunglasses. “I think it’s time to form a plan.” He turned to face us as George retrieved his glasses off the ground and fumbled to put them on while glaring daggers at Skully. “Right, so I reckon we should split up to cover more ground. That way there’s more chance of one of us stumbling across a source. If you see Elizabeth Moore… Skully, are you listening?”

“What?” said Skully, abruptly. “Oh. No, I was just looking at this cloud over there. Looks just like Barnes on a moped.”

“Oh my god, it does,” I said as the others hummed in agreement.

Lockwood pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, as much as that cloud looks like Barnes on a moped, and it really looks like Barnes on a moped, we have some sources to find. Skully?”

“Yes?”

Lockwood spoke slowly, maintaining eye contact with the inattentive ex-ghost. “We’re going to split up…”

“Yes.”

“And if we see Elizabeth Moore…”

“Yes.”

“We… You’re not listening, are you?”

“Yes. Wait. What? No, I zoned out again.”

I slapped my palm against my forehead.

“Okay, new plan,” said Lockwood. “We split into twos. Whoever’s with Skully, make sure he doesn’t break anything and/or kill anyone. I’ll go with Lucy–”

“Shocker.”

“Shut up, George. We’ll take the garden. Quill and George, take the top two floors. Skully and Hol, take the ground floor and basement. If any of you see Elizabeth Moore, scream, and the rest of us will come running. Got it?”

We nodded, all except Skully, who was pulling at a loose thread in his coat. Holly had to tug on his sleeve to get him to follow her.

“She better come back in one piece!” I called after them.

“Of course,” Skully called back. “She promised me cake. Enjoy your moonlit walk, lovebirds.”

I stuck my tongue out at him as he disappeared into the house with the others.

I walked the grounds with Lockwood’s familiar presence at my side. A few wispy shapes had formed near the pool.

“Make out any details, Lockwood?” I asked.

“They’re not fully formed yet, but they look like kids to me,” he replied. “Agents who met a bad end, possibly.” He paused for a moment, then said, “You can call me Anthony, you know?”

I looked up at him. “What?”

“It’s just…” His brow furrowed as if he was thinking over his next words. “We’re together now, right? It seems weird for my girlfriend to call me by my surname.”

I blushed at the term ‘girlfriend’, still not used to it. “Anthony,” I said, rolling the word on my tongue, trying it out. I smirked at him. “What if I wanna call you ‘big A’.”

“Then I’m dumping you,” he monotoned.

I stuck my bottom lip out. “That’s just mean.”

He laughed at my expression and nudged my side as we continued walking past the pool. “Just kidding. I’d never let you go, Luce. Even if you called me ‘ _big A_ ’.” He stuck out his tongue in disgust.

“And what about ‘A.J’,” I said, casually.

Lockwood’s brow furrowed, and he looked at the ground. “Jessica called me that, sometimes.”

I glanced over at him. “You didn’t seem to mind when Skully said it.”

He shrugged. “It’s… I don’t know. It seemed normal when he said it. Guess he’s growing on me.”

I smiled slightly. “Well, my best friend and my boyfriend need to get along…”

I stopped walking. Lockwood looked over at me and raised his eyebrows questioningly. “I hear water,” I said. It was getting colder, too. My breath puffed out in front of me.

Lockwood frowned. “Wait, I hear it too.”

I looked up at him, confused; his Listening was usually terrible. If he could hear it, then…

I turned back towards the pool. I watched as water gushed into it from an unknown source, rapidly filling it all the way up to the brim.

“Lucy!” Lockwood shouted. I whipped back around to see he had his rapier drawn and was facing down a Visitor who hovered a few feet in front of him.

She was dressed all in black, and the fabric rippled and flowed around her form as if weightless. Thick tendrils of dark hair swirled around her pale face and dark, hollow eyes stared towards us. It was as if she was eternally floating underwater.

And, around her, more Visitors gathered, getting more defined as they drew closer, as if gaining strength from the psychic energy she radiated, until I could clearly see every hair plastered to their foreheads, their clothes dark and weighed down, the water dripping from their locks, down their noses, their sleeves, their legs, pooling beneath them on the grass below.

My ears buzzed with psychic humming; words I couldn’t quite make out.

“Elizabeth?” I addressed the ghost. Lockwood glanced over at me but didn’t attempt to stop me.

Faint words. “… _gone_ … _can’t_ …”

“What is it you want?” I said. “We can help you.”

“… _can’t find him_ … _gone_ … _need to find him_ …”

“Your brother?” I said. “Can you tell me his name?”

The ghost snapped her necked up and stared right at me, her face contorted into a hideous expression before she let out a spectral shriek. “ _GONE!_ ”

I stumbled backwards from shock. Lockwood unclipped a salt canister from his belt and hurled it at the ghosts’ feet. It exploded, sending grains of salt everywhere and making ectoplasm hiss and sputter. The Visitors flickered out, but Elizabeth reappeared only a few feet back and raised a huge gust of freezing wind that smacked into us with full force and sent us staggering backwards towards the pool. It kept blowing, whipping our hair back from our faces, forcing us ever closer to the water.

With great effort, I grabbed a magnesium flare and, squinting against the harsh wind, threw it in the general direction of Elizabeth’s ghost.

There was a flash of Greek fire, and Elizabeth momentarily flickered out again, giving us a brief respite from the spectral wind, but it didn’t last long.

She reappeared even closer and sent another blast of air our way. My feet teetered on the edge of the pool, the icy water lapped at my ankles. It only took one more gust of wind to knock me over.

I just had time to scream, and to hear Lockwood shout my name, before I was enveloped by the frosty water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soz lol


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: There’s some detail about near-drowning at the start. Idk if anyone will be affected by that, but if you are, I won’t be offended if you skip it. Just Ctrl + F your way to ‘strong hands’. Happy reading, everyone!

The cold hit me all at once, seeping into my clothes, biting into my skin. My heart raced, blood rushed in my ears, I almost gasped for air in my blind panic. As a reflex, I thrashed around, frantically trying to get back to the surface, but I’d fallen in at an odd angle and struggled to contort my body the right way around.

After a terrifying few seconds, I managed to force my way to the surface, but I barely had time to gasp for air, and to see Lockwood being blasted back from the pool with Elizabeth reaching out for him, before the water churned around me and dragged me under again.

Lockwood. He needed help. I needed to help him.

I kicked my legs frantically, trying to fight against the heavy equipment on my belt that was pulling me down, but my hefty boots weighed my legs down. That, the numbing cold, the ghost lock creeping into my heart… it all made my movements sluggish.

I reached out and grasped at the edge of the pool, but my hands slid on the slimy tiles. My lungs screamed for oxygen. I tried to keep a grip on the edge of the pool, tried to gather enough strength to haul myself up.

Distantly, I heard people shouting. I recognised my friends’ voices; George and Kipps, then Holly and Skully. They’d help Lockwood. He’d be okay.

My head pounded painfully, my chest burned. I was cold, so cold. And tired.

I couldn’t stifle my reflexes anymore. I gasped for air, and water rushed into my lungs in its place. My fingers slipped from the tiles…

Then strong hands grabbed my arms and hauled me out of the water.

I sat there, on the wet grass, pressed up against Lockwood’s chest and coughing water up.

“Lucy? Lucy, are you alright?”

I gasped for air between coughing fits, and each breath seemed to rip my throat apart on the way down. I clutched at the arm Lockwood had around my torso for support, shivering violently. He was staring at me, eyes wide and frantic.

“Oh, I’m just dandy,” I croaked out at last, though I guess I didn’t convince him because he removed his coat and wrapped it tightly around me.

The others stood nearby, looking terrified as they gazed down at me. “What happened?” I said.

“We got here just as it… Elizabeth was about to touch Lockwood,” Holly said. “Skully sort of…blasted her away.”

I looked over at my friend. He seemed pale and was staring into space with hollow eyes.

George seemed to have noticed, too. “Alright there, Skully? You look like –”

“If you say like I’ve seen a ghost, I’m cutting you,” Skully said, looking up abruptly to shoot George a glare.

“Jeez, why’re you so tetchy?” George said, holding his hands up in mock surrender.

“Maybe because my best friend nearly drowned!”

“Oh, so now you care about people?”

“Lucy? Sure. If you wanted to take a dip in the pool, however –”

“Stop it!” I shouted. “Both of you, stop it! You’ll only make her stronger if you fight.”

“Maybe we should just call it a night,” Kipps suggested.

“No,” I said. “We can get this place cleared tonight, I know we can. I’m not letting that bitch hang around, so she can try and drown anyone else.”

“Lucy, you’re soaking wet and freezing,” Holly tried to reason. “You need to warm up or you’ll catch a cold. Or worse.”

“There’s a fireplace in the living room, we should be able to start a fire,” said Lockwood. “At least stay there and warm up while the rest of us handle this.”

I didn’t want to agree with him – I wanted to track that ghost’s source down and snuff it out for good – but I guess I wouldn’t be much use in the state I was in, so I nodded.

Holly still looked concerned. “It’ll take forever for your clothes to dry. You could still get sick.”

“I’ll dry her off first,” said Skully.

George raised an eyebrow at him. “And how d’you plan on doing that?”

Skully cracked his knuckles. “I have my ways. Luce, see that porch railing? Go hang onto it as tight as you can.”

It was with great apprehension that I slipped out of Lockwood’s coat and approached the railing, but I was desperate to warm up; my sopping clothes weighed me down and I was numb all over. I wrapped my stiff fingers as tight as I could around the railing.

“Ready?” said Skully.

“No.”

The gust of psychic wind nearly sent me flying, but I held on even tighter and squeezed my eyes closed. My hair whipped painfully against my face, my clothes flapped harshly around me. It wasn’t nearly as cold as most ghostly winds, I’d give him that, but still far from pleasant, and when it finally died down, I glared daggers at Skully.

“I h-h-hate y-you,” I said as my teeth chattered together and I shivered violently.

“You’re welcome,” said Skully, as Lockwood came over and wrapped his coat back around me. I was still freezing, but at least my clothes were now relatively dry, if completely wrinkled.

I sat, cross-legged, in the centre of the iron chain in the living room while the others ran around collecting firewood and building a fire. I don’t know how she’d managed to find them, but Holly bundled me up in several moth-eaten blankets, so Lockwood could have his coat back.

“Try not to smother her, Hol,” George said, snickering as Holly continued to fuss over me, pouring me mugs of boiling tea from our thermoses. I didn’t mind so much; with the roaring fire, the piles of blankets, and the warm cup of tea in my hands, feeling was finally starting to return to my body. It hurt like hell, but at least it was something.

Lockwood eyed Skully, who was still seeming a little off; he hadn’t insulted George in a whole ten minutes, it was kind of disconcerting. Lockwood clapped a hand on his shoulder. “How about you stay here and keep an eye on Lucy. Make sure she stays out of trouble.”

Skully shrugged. “I mean, I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything.”

I shot both of them an unimpressed look.

Lockwood came over to where I was sitting and knelt in front of me. “You sure you’re okay, Luce? You gave me a fright there.”

I smiled at him. “I’m fine. Had to add nearly drowning to my list of near-death experiences at some point, I guess.” I didn’t tell him that my lungs still burned. That I could still feel the water pressing in on me.

Lockwood laughed, but it was short and sounded forced. “I’d rather you stopped having any near-death experiences at all.”

“Yeah, well, join the club.”

Lockwood just looked at me for a moment, his brows pulled slightly together, and his mouth tugged up a little at the corners. I wish I knew what he was thinking. Then he leant forwards and pressed his lips to my forehead.

“We’ll get this place sorted out. Stay safe, Lucy.”

“You too, Anthony.”

His cheeks got a faint pink dusting at that, and I committed that look to memory. Then I watched as he, George, Kipps, and Holly ventured back out of the living room to confront the Visitors, leaving me alone with Skully.

He walked forwards and sat beside me in the iron circle. I unwrapped the top blanket layer and draped it over both our shoulders.

“You okay?” I said.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You just seem a little off, that’s all. Do you wanna talk about it?”

I was met with silence. I took that as a no and looked back at the fire.

“My family are only a few hours away from here,” I said, changing the subject. “I’m half tempted to pay a visit.”

“Why don’t you?”

I shrugged. “My sisters are all scattered. I don’t really get along with my mum. I could always just visit Mary, I suppose.”

“She your favourite?”

I glanced over at him. “Didn’t you have a favourite sibling?”

There was a pause, then, “My twin, I guess.”

I nearly spat out the tea I’d been sipping on. “Twin?! There was more than one of you in the world?!”

He rolled his eyes. “Twin _sister_.”

“Marginally better, I suppose,” I conceded. “Which one of you was born first?”

He huffed. “She was. But that made me the incredible seventh child, so can’t complain much.”

I frowned. “I’m a seventh child. Why’s that so special?”

“Not heard all the folklore around seventh children?” he said. “Why d’you think your Talents are so strong? Why d’you think Bickerstaff hired me?”

I shrugged it off, though I had been wondering why my Talent had been doing the opposite of fading as I got older. “What was your sister like?”

He shrugged. “Stubborn, bit of a temper, wanted people to think she was all strong and mature but she was actually a huge dork.”

The description sounded like someone I knew, but I couldn’t quite think who. “She sounds cool.”

He picked at a loose thread in the blanket. “Yeah, she was.”

He seemed uncomfortable with the conversation, so I let the matter drop. I shuffled closer and rested my head on his shoulder.

“You’re being soppy again,” he told me.

“I nearly froze to death. I need the warmth.”

“I don’t know how much warmth you’re gonna get from a half-dead guy.”

“Shut up and let me be soppy.”

We sat in companionable silence for a while, watching the flames dance and listening to the wood crackle. I could hear a few distant sounds – water dripping, faint voices – but no Visitors bothered us in the living room.

“Thanks for saving Lockwood, by the way,” I said, after a while.

“You would’ve killed me if I didn’t,” Skully replied.

“True, but we both know that’s not why. You’re becoming best buds.”

Skully scoffed. “Sure. I’ll be the best man at your wedding.”

I ignored the way my heart jolted at the thought of marrying Lockwood one day. “Shut up,” I told him. “Besides, you can’t do that when you’re giving me away.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Am I, now?”

“I mean, my dad’s dead. I don’t have any uncles or brothers or anything. You’ll have to do.”

“Charming.”

We heard a crash come from downstairs. I sat bolt upright, listening. I heard a scream – Kipps, I think – followed by a shout from Lockwood, then, faintly, the gush of water.

I lurched to my feet and grabbed my discarded rapier.

“Lucy,” Skully warned. “You need to rest. They can handle it.” But I was already charging out of the door, towards the stairs to the basement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't make ya wait too long this time. You're welcome. Let's just ignore the fact that I have an essay due in like a week.


	6. Lost and Found

The basement stairs had become a roaring waterfall. I took a second to seriously regret taking my shoes off to warm my feet by the fire as the icy water seeped through my socks, but there was no time to go back now; I heard crashes and shouts from below, felt the cold, the creeping fear, the malaise and miasma… My friends needed me.

I ignored the seriously uncomfortable squelch of my socks as I splashed down the stairs, rapier raised. The water at the base of the stairs nearly reached my knees, the iron chain we’d set up had been washed away. My friends were trapped in a corner, frantically slashing at Elizabeth’s legion of drowned spirits. Holly, unable to wield a rapier due to her injured arm, was throwing salt bombs and magnesium flares left, right and centre, but they fizzled out uselessly when they came into contact with the water. My own equipment had already become waterlogged by my dip in the pool, so I’d left it upstairs. I only had a rapier at my disposal today.

Elizabeth herself stood in the centre of the chaos, psychic wind whirling up torrents of water around her that occasionally lashed out and crashed into my friends leaving them soaked and gasping and vulnerable. The spirit wind had also blown away the drapes from the furniture, and wooden drawers and cabinets were being thrown into the wall, forcing my friends to duck and swerve. There was one piece of furniture Elizabeth seemed to be avoiding, though.

Lockwood spotted me. “Lucy! What are you doing here?!”

Kipps didn’t seem to mind so much. “Lucy, the vanity! Top drawer. We couldn’t get it open.”

I rushed over to the dressing table in question as fast as I could, forcing my legs to move against the churning water, but Elizabeth spotted me soon enough.

A great wave rose up and smashed into me, knocking me backwards and plunging me into the water. I fought against the panic rising in my throat over being underwater again so soon and forced myself back to my feet, spitting water out.

The others had used the distraction to move away from the corner and were making their way towards the vanity, slashing through Visitors in the process, but Elizabeth whipped back around and raised a mighty gust of wind that tore a huge armoire from the ground and hurled it towards them. It moved too fast for them to react, and collided straight into Kipps and Lockwood, pinning them to the ground as the water continued to rise.

“Lockwood! Quill!” I screamed, slashing at the ghost of a youth in an agency uniform as I waded towards them. Fortunately, only their legs were trapped, so they were managing to keep their torsos above the surface of the water for now, but it was rising fast.

I managed to reach them and grasped the armoire along with George and Holly and pulled. We managed to inch it up enough for Kipps to wiggle out, but Lockwood was still stuck fast, and the water was now at his shoulders.

“It’s too heavy!” Holly cried, her voice shrill in panic. Even with Kipps helping now, the armoire wouldn’t budge. It didn’t help that the Visitors were still advancing, and we kept having to pause our heaving to slash them away.

“Where’s that bloody ex-ghost and his superpowers when we need him?!” George seethed through gritted teeth as we gave the armoire another heave.

“Maybe if you were a little nicer to him he’d want to help us!” I snapped back.

“ _…lost…_ ”

I whirled around as I felt the rush of cold air as Elizabeth moved towards us. Kipps swore loudly, and Lockwood cried out in pain as the armoire shifted without me supporting it.

Then a supernatural force swept the armoire away from Lockwood. It sailed over my head and crashed into the far wall, and the water rippled as splinters of mahogany showered down. I looked up and felt a rush of gratitude and relief when I saw Skully stood halfway down the staircase, arm raised.

“About time!” George yelled, heaving a gasping Lockwood to his feet. “What took you so long, _Jim_?!”

The room fell silent as Elizabeth’s ghost seemed to just… stop. Her image flickered, the water stopped churning, the wind died down. And her next words made my blood run cold.

“ _…Jim…Jimmy…?_ ”

George’s eyes widened as they darted between Elizabeth and Skully, and I could almost see the cogs turning in his brain. I felt like an idiot for not realising before; the timelines added up. Of course, coincidences happen, but I should have known from the way Skully had reacted when he had come to my rescue out at the pool when he’d seen the ghost for the first time. He’d been acting strange ever since. I suppose seeing the ghost of your twin sister, locked forever in the gruesome image of when she’d died, would shake anybody up. I didn’t blame him for being reluctant to help us fight her, except now he didn’t have much choice.

Skully’s face was pale, but his jaw was set. He walked stiffly and slowly down the remaining stairs. He made no reaction as his feet plunged into the icy water at the base of the stairs. He walked calmly forwards until he was face to face with his sister.

“Hey, Lizzy.”

I’d never heard him sound so defeated. His voice so hoarse and quiet. It made my stomach twist painfully.

Elizabeth stared at him with dark eyes. The same eyes as her brother. Her weightless hair drifted silently around her face, her dress rippled softly at her feet.

“ _… brother…Jimmy…lost…_ ”

He tilted his head to one side and scanned her face, a weak smile on his lips. “You got old. You look like mum.”

“ _…gone…lost…Jim…_ ”

Skully let out a breath of air and looked towards the floor. “You’d have killed me for saying that.”

I knew what he was trying to do - I’d tried it myself with many Visitors, though of course, it wasn’t the same. He wanted to open the rift a little wider, to let her reach out to him. He wanted to talk to his sister again. But it was no use. Elizabeth Moore, or Lizzy Walker as she’d once been called, was merely a fraction, an echo, of the person she once was. Where Skully had come back to the world of the living voluntarily, her spirit had remained tied here by the goals she had yet to fulfil. She didn’t want to live anymore, and so her connection was weak.

“ _…Jimmy…_ ”

Skully’s smile was sad, and it didn’t stay on his face for long. “You’re still here coz you didn’t know what happened to me. That’s your unfinished business, right? Well, some arseholes sliced off my head in a sewer. I’ll save you the details.”

Even now he was attempting to keep up his old sarcastic wit, but it sounded half-hearted. Weak. Like he was trying so hard to stay strong.

I resisted the urge to go to him, to let him know I was there for him; I could see how much he was hurting, but I knew this was something he had to deal with on his own.

Skully swallowed thickly. “I’m here now, okay? I’m safe.” He looked up at his sister one last time and gave her a sad smile. “Time to go, sis. I’ll see you again, one day.”

Then Elizabeth reached out her hands towards his face. I gave a shout and tried to run forwards. I heard the others cry out and water splash behind me. But the water weighed our legs down and there was no way we could get to him in time. We could only watch as Elizabeth’s ghostly fingers touched Skully’s skin.

And then she was gone. The psychic hum in my ears that warned of supernatural presence vanished, as did the ghosts of those who had drowned here, and the water began to drain off through grates on the basement floor.

I scrambled forwards towards Skully, praying that the ghost-touch wasn’t serious, that we could get him to a hospital in time, but when I reached him I saw that his skin was clear. I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding; his powers must have made him immune to ghost-touch.

I scrutinised his face; his expression was unnervingly blank as he stared past my shoulder. “Are you alright?”

I guess it was kind of a stupid question. He said nothing as he moved past me towards Elizabeth’s vanity. He raised his hand, and I jumped as the drawer slammed open with a bang.

Skully just stood there for a moment, hand still hovering over the drawer, staring down at its contents. I edged forwards and stood beside him.

There were a few things that could have been Elizabeth’s source: a wad of letters, an iron ring, a picture frame with the glass cracked… I reached for the ring.

“Don’t –” Skully warned.

Too late. My fingers brushed against the cold metal, and my head flooded with echoes of the past.

First, there was noise. A familiar noise; the chaos of a large family. Bickering, shouting, laughter… The creak of a rocking chair, the bubbling of pots on the stove, a crackling fire, the scratch of a pen nib on paper… I felt the warmth of familiarity, anger at annoying siblings replaced by the joy of working together to cause mischief… But the sounds faded, as did the warm feeling in my chest, replaced instead by loss and grief and pain… but also the fire of determination. To pick myself up and carry on.

Now it was quiet. But I heard whispers. About life and death. Spirits and the Other Side. My heart burned with admiration, loyalty. And my back burned with pain.

“Lucy…”

The whispers turned to shouts. Frantic, angry. Fear coursed through me. Footsteps pounded on stone, then splashed in shallow water. More shouts. More pain. This time around my throat. I heard screaming…

“Lucy!”

My eyes snapped open. Lockwood was gripping my arm, staring at me with wide eyes. I had one hand still grasped around my throat, clawing at a wire that wasn’t there. I drew a shaky breath as I lowered my hand. I was trembling all over, but it had nothing to do with the cold. Slowly, I unclenched my other hand from around the iron ring and looked up at Skully. That hadn’t been Elizabeth’s life I’d been feeling.

His expression was unreadable as he held out his hand towards me. Without a word, I dropped the ring onto his palm, and he slipped it onto his finger. Then he turned back to the drawer and pulled out the wad of letters. He stared at them for a moment, at the writing scrawled out on the top envelope, then he held them out in the general direction of the others in a silent request.

“I can’t… I can’t read these.”

It was George who moved forwards and took the letters from him. He unfolded the first slowly, swallowed, and read:

_“‘Dearest Arthur,_

_“As you read this I shall be on a carriage headed to London. I wish to tell my siblings of our coming wedding in person, as it had been so long since I have seen their faces._

_“As you know, my father passed almost five years ago, so it is my hope that my closest brother, James, will take over the role of giving me away. I am so looking forward to the both of you meeting, I am sure you will get along well._

_“It has been so long since I have seen him, though it feels like yesterday that Jimmy and I were stealing eggs from Mr Gregory’s hens and throwing them at his windows. I hear he has taken a job as an assistant to a respectable doctor. I hope he is treating him well and giving him an education as you did for me._

_“I hope to return to you by the end of the week, my darling. Stay out of trouble until then._

_“With love,_

_“Elizabeth.’”_

George cleared his throat as he fumbled to open the next letter. The rest of us remained silent, shivering quietly to ourselves, still sopping wet. Holly had her arms hugged tightly around herself, her expression downcast and grim; Kipps looked slightly sick; Lockwood’s brows were furrowed. I eyed Skully; his face was still blank as he reached into the drawer and pulled out the frame.

Beneath the cracked and dusty glass lay a drawing in faded ink. It featured two children, a boy and girl stood side by side. He was much younger in the drawing, but I’d recognise Skully’s grin anywhere, and scrawled at the bottom were the words ‘ _Jimmy and Lizzy, age 10_ ’, followed by a signature: _A. Walker_.

George had unfolded the second letter.

_“‘My love,_

_“I am afraid I shall be staying in London for longer than I had planned._

_“The doctor my brother was working for has been found dead, and Jimmy is missing. My oldest brother, Thomas, says he had not heard from him in weeks. I have contacted the police, but they are being difficult. They say people like Jim go missing all the time, but why should that mean they shouldn’t search for him? I shall have to contact more private investigators._

_“Please add my brother to your prayers tonight._

_“Love,_

_“Elizabeth.’”_

The girl in the drawing was smiling broadly. Even though the ink had faded, her eyes seemed to sparkle. Skully sank to his knees.

“‘ _Arthur,_ ’” George read after unfolding the next letter. “‘ _The detectives I hired handed me my fathers ring this morning. Jimmy began wearing it after our parents passed. They found it in the sewers. They say bodies are left down there often. I fear the worst._ ’”

“That’s enough, George,” Lockwood said, quietly, and George set the rest of the letters down carefully on the vanity.

I looked down at Skully. He hadn’t said a word since George had started reading, he just stared at the frame that rested in his lap.

And then he screamed.

It was a sound so raw and painful that it made my gut ache, and psychic energy seemed to burst from him. The others and I staggered back from the force of it. Furniture splintered, the plaster on the wall cracked, the small basement windows shattered, as did the glass of the frame in Skully’s hands.

Then the room fell silent once more, and Skully hunched over, eyes tightly closed, jaw clenched, shoulders shaking.

Slowly, I moved forwards and knelt down next to him, before wrapping my arms around him and resting my head on his shoulder. Lockwood limped over, too, and knelt down behind him and lay a hand on his other shoulder. I guess he knew what it was like to lose a sister.

None of us said anything. There was nothing to say.

After a moment, Skully reached up and grabbed the arm I had wrapped around his torso, gripping it tightly like he was holding on for dear life, like he was afraid to let go. And, with his other hand, he clutched the shattered frame.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soz lol


	7. The Family We Choose

We got back to the hotel just past midnight, soaking wet and shivering.

A hot shower had never felt so good before. I stood beneath the spray and let the hot water wash over me, trying, just for a moment, not to let myself think about all the horrible things that had occurred today. If that had been one of my sisters…

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. It was no good to dwell on the past when I could do nothing about it; all it served to do was make me more miserable, and I’d had enough of that for one day.

I towelled off my hair and changed into warm pyjamas before heading back into the bedroom, where Skully was curled up on his bed facing the wall. He hadn’t spoken a word since the manor, and I couldn’t think of anything to say that could possibly make him feel better.

There was a light knock on the door. I wrapped my duvet around my shoulders and shuffled over to answer it, to find Lockwood, George, Holly, and Kipps all stood on the threshold with their arms full of their duvets and pillows.

“What are you–?” I started, but George barged past me to dumb the bedding on the floor.

“I have a feeling we should all stay together tonight,” Lockwood said, gently.

“I hope this is alright, Lucy,” said Holly. “Lockwood was quite persuasive.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Skully and caught his blank stare before he rolled back over to face the wall again.

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s fine.”

I felt weird sleeping on the bed when the others were on the floor, so I ended up curled between Holly and Lockwood. The carpet wasn’t as soft as my mattress, but the mountains of blankets shared between us all made up for it, and Lockwood's chest made a good pillow.

I don’t know if the presence of us all gave some semblance of the large family he’d once had, but for once, I didn’t hear Skully stir at all during the night.

* * *

 

I guess Skully was successful in suppressing his emotions overnight because he was back to acting like his old self when he woke us all up the next morning.

“Move your arse, Cubbins, or you will find a foot in your face.”

I blearily opened my eyes as George garbled something unintelligible and promptly got trodden on by Skully as he made his way to the bathroom, though on the stomach rather than the face.

As George doubled over groaning, I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Late morning light shone through a gap in the curtains, igniting a beam of dust particles that floated lazily through the air. Holly was already up, looking prim and perfect, already clean and dressed, and was currently sat on my bed, reading a book to pass the time until the rest of us woke up.

I haphazardly ruffled my hands through my mane of a hairdo in an attempt to neaten it up a bit, but it was soon clear that it wouldn’t co-operate, and I let out a huff. Next to me, Lockwood gave a little chuckle before he sat up a pressed a quick kiss on the tip of my nose.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.”

Kipps made a gagging noise as I tugged the collar of my pyjama top up to hide my blush. “I know you two are in love and everything, but you don’t have to flaunt it in front of us single people.”

“Speak for yourself,” said George, getting up to go and get changed in his own hotel room.

We stared after him.

“Are… are he and Flo dating now?” said Lockwood.

“It was never quite clear, was it?” said Holly.

Lockwood and Kipps also left to get changed and, after Lockwood had used the hotel phone to inform Mr Taylor that his house had been successfully cleared, we all gathered back in mine and Skully’s room, looking a little more presentable.

“If everyone’s packed, we should be able to leave after lunch,” Holly announced.

“Oh, by the way,” said George, pointing at Skully, “when we get back, we’re doing some experimenting.”

“I will not hesitate to stab you in the face,” said Skully.

“But we need to figure out why you’re immune to ghost-touch!” George exclaimed. “Think about it! With research like that, we’d be on the right path to creating a vaccine that could save lives!”

“I’m not a lab rat.”

“Well, if you have any insights, feel free to share,” George huffed.

Skully shrugged. “How should I know? I didn’t even know I was immune until yesterday.”

My heart gave an unpleasant jolt. I frowned at him. “ _What?_ You didn’t know?”

Skully raised his eyebrows at me. He must have heard some tone in my voice because when he spoke it was a little apprehensively. “Uhhh… no…”

“But you… you let her touch you!” I said, my voice rising in pitch. “You could have _died!_ ”

“But I didn’t.”

“ _That’s not the point, you–!_ ”

I almost shouted, but I stopped myself and took a deep breath to try and calm the sudden surge of anger and fear that had welled up within me. But, come to think of it, at that moment, I just didn’t care anymore.

“No. You know what? I am sick and tired of people I care about trying to sacrifice themselves for no reason!”

My friends had gone quiet and were staring at me. I guess they weren’t used to me actually using words to express how I was feeling, but, over the past few years, I’d learned that bottling stuff like this up always did more harm than good.

“Oh,” said Lockwood. “Am I being included here?”

I shot him a glare. “Yes, Mr ‘Deathwish’!”

“Ha!” said Skully. “I knew that nickname would catch on!”

At the look I gave him, he shut his mouth sharpish.

I took another deep breath and attempted to steady my voice before levelling a stern stare on both the dark-eyed boys standing before me.

“Your lives are not worth less than anyone else’s,” I said, firmly. “I don’t care if you’re being heroic, or just plain suicidal, if either of you puts yourself in unnecessary danger again, I’ll kill you, and I’ll make it look like a bloody accident.”

“Do you… not see the irony there?” said Skully.

“Oh, is that what irony is?” said Lockwood.

“James! Anthony!” I snapped.

They shut their mouths again. Lockwood’s ears grew slightly pink. Kipps eyed him reproachfully before muttering in my ear, “I know you were trying to be stern, Luce, but I think all you did was turn him on.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a breath of air, then I looked back up at Skully and Lockwood. “Just… stay safe, okay? I care about you idiots.”

“We know, Luce,” said Lockwood, gently. “We’re sorry.”

Skully mumbled something illegible and Lockwood elbowed him. “Yeah. Sorry,” he said, at last. “Won’t happen again… Probably.”

I rolled my eyes. Then I reached forwards and tugged them both into a hug.

“Jeez, you’re being so soppy lately,” said Skully.

“Shut up.”

I suddenly found myself shoved closer into the two boys as someone else joined the hug.

“ _George!_ ” I objected.

“What? Are we not allowed to join the group hug?” George said as Kipps and Holly tackled us too, effectively trapping Skully between us all.

“Oh my god!” he exclaimed, trying unsuccessfully to wiggle his way out. “You people are disgusting!”

“Don’t be such a grump,” Holly chastised, giggling as she wrapped her arms tighter around mine and Skully’s shoulders.”

“We’re not letting you go until you embrace the family cuddle,” said Kipps.

“Alright, alright,” Skully huffed. “I love you guys, too. Now get off me.”

“No,” said George.

We had to eventually release him when there was a knock at the hotel room door, and a maid informed us that we had a visitor at the front desk.

Curiously, we made our way downstairs, and, upon reaching the foyer, Holly let out a cry of joy.

“Rani! What are you doing here?” she exclaimed, running forwards and flinging herself into her girlfriend’s arms.

“They gave me a couple of days off and I fancied a trip to the seaside,” Rani laughed. “It’s much easier to come here on the train when there’s only two of you.”

“Two?” I repeated.

Rani nodded over her shoulder to where a figure was visible through the glass door, slouching against a wall.

“Flo!” George exclaimed, rushing out to meet her.

“They wouldn’t let her in the hotel,” Rani said.

“I’m not surprised,” Holly replied, wrinkling her nose.

“Anyway,” said Rani, patting the wicker basket she was holding. “Who’s up for a picnic on the beach? Call it an early birthday party for Jimbo.”

“Oh, don’t you start,” Skully groaned.

“Sounds like a plan,” I said, ignoring Skully. “I’ve just got to grab something. Won’t be a sec.”

I pilfered Lockwood’s room key out of his pocket and jogged back up the stairs, returning a few minutes later carrying the shopping bag from a few days ago.

“What’s in there?” said Skully. I gave him a wry smile. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

* * *

 

The wind was bitterly cold and blew sea spray in our faces, but as I sat there on the damp sand surrounded by my friends, trying to eat our picnic without getting sand in it, I couldn’t bring myself to care too much. It was rare that we let ourselves take the day off and relax a little. No research, no rapier practice, no nothing. Maybe one day, when the problem had died down, kids wouldn’t have to worry about such things anymore. Maybe one day, they could just be kids.

After the food was finished, we stayed sat in a circle, with mugs of hot tea from the thermoses Rani had brought.

“You didn’t bring enough sugar,” Flo complained, after adding the fifth spoonful to her mug.

“I know, right?” said Skully.

Rani ignored them and tugged something out of her backpack which she tossed at Skully. “Pre-birthday present,” she informed him. “Happy unbirthday!”

Skully eyed the large envelope contemplatively for a moment, then ripped it open and slipped the contents out onto his lap.

“…Documents?”

“Important documents!” Rani confirmed. “A birth certificate, national insurance number… even a driver’s licence for ID purposes, so you can buy all the beer you want. Though just a provisional one, mind. I don’t want you joy-riding.”

“Rani,” Holly said, mouth agape as she stared at the papers. “How did you–?” She couldn’t seem to be able to finish her sentence.

Rani coughed awkwardly. “It may have been, uh, a little _less_ than legal.”

“ _Rani!_ ” Holly scolded.

“What? The boy can’t just go around not technically existing!”

“Holly,” George said, amazed. “How did you get such a cool girlfriend?”

Holly crossed her arms and frowned at him. “What are you insinuating?”

“Who says I’m insinuating anything?”

“Thanks, Rani,” Skully interrupted before they started arguing.

Rani gave him a lopsided grin. “No problem, SkullyJim.”

“Alright, if we’re giving out presents now, you might as well have this,” I said, passing him the shopping bag.

“What _lovely_ wrapping paper,” he said as he pulled out the package and ripped off the newspaper. He stared at the contents for a moment, before saying, “I have no idea what these are.”

“Cassette tapes,” I told him. “And a Walkman. Here.” I reached forwards and set up a tape inside the device, showing him which buttons did what. “You can get ones that play music, but these are audio-books. As in, they’re recordings of someone reading a book out loud. I’m gonna get you the paperbacks as well for your actual birthday, so you can read along. It might help you learn to read a little better.” He said nothing as he stared down at the Walkman, so I continued. “These books are my favourite, actually. They’re about this boy who finds out he’s a wizard, and–”

“Lucy?” he interrupted.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

I shrugged, but I felt my mouth pull up at the corners. “It’s nothing.”

“You can have my present on your actual birthday,” George declared.

Skully raised an eyebrow at him. “You actually got me a birthday present?”

“I’m working on it,” said George. “And it’ll be the best present. Just you wait.”

“I can hardly contain my excitement,” Skully monotoned.

After that, it got a little too cold to say sitting around, so Lockwood suggested we play a few games to get us moving.

We only managed to get through one.

The piggyback race was fun, in theory. And it was fun, for most of us. I think the problem came from picking partners randomly from names haphazardly scribbled on scraps of paper and dropped in Kipps’s woolly hat.

I ended up with Kipps, Rani with Lockwood, Flo with Holly, and, much to the amusement of the rest of us, George with Skully.

I had a bit of a hard time persuading Kipps to let me carry him.

“Hop on my back, you’re smaller.”

“No! I am the man here!”

“You’re still healing from getting stabbed!”

“I’m fine!”

“Quill,” Lockwood interrupted. “Lucy’s stronger. Now be a man, and get on that girl’s back.”

Kipps and I won in the end, even with him nearly strangling me from gripping around my neck too tightly in fear. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t such a fair race, seen as Lockwood had a limp from his ordeal with the ghost, and Flo dropped Holly from laughing so hard at George and Skully, because the latter, whose supernatural strength and long legs should have won him the race easily, decided to take a detour to the sea and hurl a squealing George in.

We had the go back to the hotel after that, but at least Skully seemed much happier.

I knew our picnic was just a momentary distraction for him, knew that he’d still wake at night from terrible dreams that I was sure would now be filled with images of his sister. But, for now, he seemed okay. And maybe one day, he’d be okay for good; his past wouldn’t haunt him, he’d sleep through the night.

Whether such a day was possible or not, I knew Lockwood & Co. would always be there to help him try.

Because that’s what family is for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured I should give you guys some cuteness after that last chapter... sorry about that.


	8. Epilogue - And the Family We're Given

George slammed a crammed folder onto the table in front of the half-eaten birthday cake, scattering our monopoly pieces to the floor.

“What the hell, George?!” I exclaimed. He had ruined the game, and I had been totally about to win, okay? Flo’s success was sure to be fleeting.

“Where on Earth have you been?” said Holly, looking him up and down. “You’ve been gone a week, and you look like death!”

“Archives!” said George, a manic gleam in his eye. I had a feeling he’d been staying awake on energy drinks mixed with coffee. Flo was such a bad influence on him. “Skully, I give you your birthday present!”

Skully raised an eyebrow. “You remember I’m not so good at reading, right?”

George waved his hand, dismissively. “No, no, no, this is just my research. You don’t have to read it. But you’re gonna wanna hear it!” He grinned hysterically and began rifling through the pages of the folder with the air of someone who had definitely had one too many shots of espresso. “Oh, this is so much better than I’d originally planned!”

“Maybe cut to the chase, George,” said Lockwood.

“Okay, okay,” said George, pacing the length of the kitchen and muttering to himself as he held the open folder an inch from his face.

Rani leaned towards me. “Is this a thing that happens a lot?” she murmured in my ear.

“Sleep-deprived George, yes,” I replied. “Sleep-deprived George high on caffeine, not so much.”

George suddenly slammed the folder back down on the table in front of Skully and slapped his hands either side of it, shaking the table so that our bottles of fizzy-pop wobbled precariously.

“So, from Elizabeth’s letter, I found out you had a brother named Thomas, right?”

“That arsehole?” said Skully. “What about him?”

“He never married and died of dysentery!” George announced. “BUT! From him, I found out more about your other siblings, coz I figure some of them must have survived and had kids, right? And they did! But those lines kind of died out…” He wrung his hands and started pacing again. “All except one! Remember your little sister Penelope?”

“Oh, little Penny?” said Skully. “She used to come and pick pockets with me. Had the puppy-dog eyes. No one suspected a thing. How’d she do?”

“Pretty well, actually,” said George. “Married well, had a few kiddies. And those kids had kids, and those kids had kids, and–”

“Get to the point, Cubbins,” Skully interrupted. His eyes suddenly grew wide and he sat up straighter in his chair, hopefully. “Wait, am I related to Lucy?”

“Nope,” said George. “You’re related to Lockwood.”

I spat out the lemonade I’d been sipping all across the thinking cloth. Lockwood gaped. Skully seemed, for once, lost for words.

“ _What?_ ” I exclaimed.

Kipps looked horrified as his eyes darted between Skully and Lockwood. “They do have the same eyes.”

“Yep!” George declared, grinning proudly. “I was able to trace Penelope’s line all the way down to her great, great granddaughter, Amelia, who married a rather dashing bloke by the name of John Lockwood. And they had a son. I’ll give you three guesses who.”

“My father,” Lockwood finished, finding his voice at last. “Donald Lockwood.”

“Look at that!” George cried. “You got it in one! So anyway, this makes Skully Lockwood’s great, great, great, great, great uncle.” He slammed the folder shut. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna have an enormous slice of cake, and then maybe take a nap for three days.” And with that, he sat down and cut himself a slice.

The kitchen was quiet as we all gaped at Skully and Lockwood, and they stared at each other. Then suddenly, Skully’s face split into a huge grin, and he reached forwards and ruffled Lockwood’s hair.

“Aww! My ickle nephew, A.J.”

“Please stop,” said Lockwood, but I could see the corners of his mouth quirking upwards.

Both boys had thought they’d had no living relatives, but now George had found family for both of them. I felt a little surge of pride for George; his incredible researching skills, and the fact that he’d gone so out of his way to get such a thoughtful gift for someone he pretended to hate. I made a mental note to try and be a little nicer to him in the future.

“Just out of curiosity,” said Skully, “if A.J dies, do I get the house?”

“Don’t even think about it,” I said.

“What? I’m not saying that _I’m_ gonna kill him. Just that he has a knack for nearly dying, so if he _does_ die…”

“The house is in my mother’s name, so no,” Lockwood said.

“Damn.”

“Also,” Rani chimed in with a sly smile. “Looks like you’ll end up related to Lucy, after all, Jim. When she and Lockwood get married.”

“Oh, yeah!” said Skully as I flushed bright red. “I’ll be like your great, great, whatever uncle-in-law.”

“Grunkle-in-law,” said George.

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” I said, as Skully lobbed a party hat at George’s head.

“Whatever,” said Rani. “This is still a cause for celebration! Well… more celebration. Group photo time! Everyone in the back garden!”

“But it’s freezing out there,” Kipps complained.

“We’ve gotta do it for the autumnal backdrop aesthetic,” Rani insisted, and she went to wake up Barnes, who had begrudgingly attended the party because he had ‘nothing better to do’ and had fallen asleep on an armchair in the living room while the rest of us played monopoly.

Rani quickly showed him how to work her camera before coming to join the rest of us as we lined up in front of the apple tree and quickly tried to make ourselves look slightly more presentable, except for Flo and George, who didn’t seem to care.

I stood between Lockwood and Skully, my arms around both of them, and tried not to blink as Barnes took his time with the camera, grumbling something about ‘new-fangled technology’.

He managed to snap the photo, eventually, and caught the exact moment that Skully shoved George over and yanked me into a head-lock.

Immortalised forever was an image of me yanking on Lockwood’s tie in an attempt to save myself, George grabbing onto Kipps’s shirt and dragging him down with him, Holly reaching out in vain to try and catch them, Flo cackling, and Rani hunched over in mirth. And Skully, stood right in the centre of the chaos, grinning his sadistic grin.

So maybe it wasn’t the most glamorous photo in the world. But it was, in my opinion, one of the better family photographs I’d been a part of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FIN!
> 
> Lemme know what you think!   
> Not too sure how people will react to that little reveal. But not to worry, I have a permit:
> 
> I can do what I want. 
> 
> \- Rowan.


End file.
